Spymaster’s final interview reveals deep rift in Israel
By Jonathan Cook from Nazareth.
If revenge is a dish best served cold, then Meir Dagan must have
relished his retribution on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu –
it was delivered from beyond the grave.
The eulogies barely over, the Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonoth
published excerpts from an interview conducted with Israel’s former
spymaster shortly before his death last month.
In damning remarks, the former Mossad chief described Mr Netanyahu as
a man trapped in self-delusion, believing himself to be one the world’s
“greatest geniuses”. In truth, said Dagan, he was “the worst manager I
knew”.
Their falling out centred on Mr Netanyahu’s belligerent posturing
over Iran. He was the only Israeli prime minister ever to have “reached a
state … in which the entire security establishment essentially didn’t
accept his position”.
With fitting symbolism, as these comments were made public it was
revealed that corneas donated by Dagan had restored the vision of two
Israelis.
He presumably hoped that his last interview would be of similar
benefit to many more Israelis, giving them insights into the opaque
world of Israel’s political and security elites.
In a speech at Dagan’s graveside last month, Mr Netanyahu exploited
what he presumed to be Dagan’s now-permanent silence. He painted him as a
solid ally in the struggle against “Islamist zealotry”, claiming Dagan
had warned that the “fight against terror will continue for another 100
years”.
The interviews present a more complex picture. They confirm in the
bluntest terms what was already widely suspected: that a split of
unprecedented proportions had developed between Mr Netanyahu and his spy
chief before and after Dagan retired in late 2011.
The stark differences between the two were encapsulated in the
military metaphors each employed. Dagan warned in 2011 that Israel
should avoid war unless “the sword is cutting into our flesh”. Mr
Netanyahu, by contrast, argued last October that Israel would have to
“live forever by the sword”.
Dagan was no peacenik, even on his death bed. Rather, his hostility
derived from an assessment that the prime minister threatened Israel’s
“survival as a Jewish state”.
